Emotional search to find Italian father

Dan Cain

A WOMAN given up for adoption when she was just two-days-old is desperate to meet her biological father for the first time.

Mother-of-two Melina said she could not put it into words what finding her father would mean to her.

She said: “It’s a huge void in my life. It’s incredibly painful to not have that connection with him. It would really mean the world to me if I could find him, for myself and for him, because I think it would have really impacted on his life. It’s something I’ve always struggled with, it would be like finding the missing piece of the jigsaw.”

At the time Melina was conceived in 1963, Anton worked as a waiter in a hotel on Worthing seafront. He had shoulder-length red curly hair and is believed to have been around 22-years-old.

Reading through court records, Melina found that Anton would boast to his friends about having a daughter.

She said: “He was so desperate to keep hold of me, that’s the tragedy of my story.

“At that time things were really different in adoption. They didn’t allow him to be interviewed by social services. My birth mother’s parents had a lot to do with the decision as well. He was very persistent, he would keep ringing but they would put the phone down.”

When she was 30, Melina tracked down her birth mother using the tracing register.

Melina said: “All my life I did think that I was probably Italian, and then my birth mother confirmed that I was.”

In the event he could not play a part in his daughter’s upbringing, Anton had said he wanted his brother in Rome to raise her with his family, according to Melina.

By sheer coincidence, Melina named her 11-year-old daughter Roma, long before she found out about her heritage. Melina called the moment she found out ‘incredible’.

She said: “I’ve tried to compensate not having him in my life by trying to learn Italian cooking, the culture and the language so I can pass it on to my children and it doesn’t get lost.”

n Do you know Melina’s father? Contact Melina on 07988718178 or the Worthing Herald on 01903 282363